Sergei Borisov: Mirages of incomprehension

In the city of Wilder, Idaho, a pastor at the local church hung out a poster which caused quite a stir in local community. “The Spirit of Islam is the Spirit of Antichrist,” the poster said. According to Pastor Geoff Cole, this sign is not an expression of hatred, but God’s word. To justify his move, the clergyman cites the Bible, describing in detail the spirit of Antichrist.
The city’s mayor thinks the poster is insulting, but the city administration cannot do anything about it, since mounting such a poster is not against the law. The mayor had to listen to many people protesting against ethnic hatred. The pastor, however, stays firm saying it is exactly freedom of speech that makes America a great country. He also says that, apart 3 complaints, he heard many encouraging words over the poster. In his view, the controversial poster has nothing to do with hatred towards Islam. The pastor added that he just could not remain silent about the “spirit of Antichrist which acts in our world.”
The Moslems to pay back in the same coin. For example, you may learn from Palestinian new textbooks that there is no State of Israel. The Canadian newspaper National Post publishes the results of the analysis carried out by the New York-based Centre for Monitoring Impact of Peace. The newspaper writes that according to 58 new textbooks and two teachers' guides for grades 1, 2, 6, 7 and 11 published in the past two years by the Palestinian Authority, Israel does not exist. The new textbooks are being used throughout the Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and Gaza in 1,300 schools administered by the Palestinian Authority and 261 run by the United Nations Relief & Works Agency. Interestingly, Canada has since 1993 contributed $165-million in direct aid to Palestinian development programs, including education, plus a further $10-million annually to UNRWA.
While there is recognition in the Palestinian textbooks of a sovereign Jewish state under King David in ancient times, the modern state of Israel is never shown. Every map in every subject - from Grade 2 math to Grade 7 geography - marks the entire area of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as Palestine and fails to show any modern Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv or Hadera. Jewish immigration to Palestine since the 16th century is described in negative terms as "infiltration" and Hebrew is referred to as a dialect rather than a language. A population table for Palestine in a Grade 6 National Education textbook lists 1.9 million people on the West Bank, 1.1 million in Gaza, 1.1 million "Palestinians of the Interior" (i.e. Israeli Arabs) and 4.4 million "Palestinians of the Diaspora." The five million Jews living in Israel are not mentioned at all.
The above 2 examples of hatred speak for themselves. The lessons of mutual enmity and incomprehension taught in school and in church will the turn into terrorist attacks and wars.